Bridgeton pioneer., 1887-07-14
Workingmen Indignant.

Workingmen Indignant.
Can wages be attached for taxes, is
being asked by hundred and fifty
workingmen of Millville, whose wages
were attached last week while in the
hands of Whitall, Tatum & Co.
The question is complicated, and we
should not wonder if more than the
indignant parties are at sea as to the
legality of such a procedure. All men
who are taxable should pay their
taxes, and there are regular processes
by which they can be forced to pay
them, such as handing the names OF
delinquents to some Justice of the
Peace in sixty days after the receipt of
the transcript or duplicate of their
assessment. The names must be given
to the Justice on the Goth day of De-
cember in every year, except that day
fall on Sunday.
The Justice, on receiving list of
such delinquents, shall administer an
oath to the said Collector, that the
moneys in said list of delinquents had
been duly demanded, or due notice
given thereof. Then said Justice with
in five days after receipt of the list of
names, shall make out and deliver to
Constable a warrant or warrants
requiring him to levy the tax So in
arrears, with costs, by distress and
sale of the goods and chattels, giving
at least four days notice of sale. If
goods and chattels cannot be found,
or not sufficient to make the money
required, the Constable shall take the
body of him or her, and hand them
over to the Sheriff, to be kept in close
and safe custody until payment be
made of the said tax, with costs.
Such is the legal process, by writ of
execution, and the law puts liberal
construction on the validity of such
process. Hence, there is little doubt
but what the process of attaching
wages for taxes is strictly uniustifiable
and extrajudicial and should not be
tolerated.
The fact that those men have not
paid their taxes does not give a suffi-
cient cause for an improper process.
Attachments are solely for the purpose
of seizing the goods and chattles of an
absconding debtor, and the Revision
of the State of New Jersey" page "A,
reads-"Applies only to personal prop
erty, as goods and chatteIs, and not to
rights and credits, as wages New
Jersey does not allow wages to be
attached. We do not attempt to de-
fine the exact extent of irregularity in
this matter further than specified by
the law itself.
No company can allow the wages of
an employee to be paid to any person,
corporation, or city, under any process
without the permission of said en-
ployee. And if the wages be demanded
by the employee, and his employers
refuse to pay the demand, they are
| actionable, under tort and other more
recent laws for the benefit of working
men.
One of the nice points in the pro-
ceedings of last week is that many of
their wages were attached before due
there wages were not due until their
regular pay day, and they were at
tached prior to that time.
Why does not the city lift the
money already attached in the Office
of the window-glass works-and which
has been there since 1884? If they dare
not take it, then it does not belong to
them. If the companies dare not pay
it over without the consent of the
employee, then they have no right to
hold it. 1t belongs to the employee,
and should not be in question.
A few suits VS.. the company would
settle the matter.
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